By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Since the day they were drafted, it’s been a question of when, not if, for the two teenage kids selected by the Flyers in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft.
When might be coming pretty soon. Like eight days from now.
The Flyers roster was trimmed down to 26 on Wednesday and with both Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny still on the roster, the possibility of one or both of them making the Flyers final roster looks as good as ever before.
For Provorov, his spot may have already been secured. The Flyers have put an emphasis on getting the 19-year-old plenty of ice time to see his skill set and his durability over multiple games. So far, he has passed with flying colors.
With Sam Morin being sent to the Phantoms, eight defenseman remain, plus the injured Mark Alt who will soon be going back to the AHL as well. The Flyers will carry at least seven defensemen on the final roster, and Dave Hakstol said on Wednesday that the team was not opposed to keeping eight defensemen.
Michael Del Zotto, Mark Streit, Shayne Gostisbehere, Radko Gudas and Nick Schultz are locks to make the roster. That leaves three defensemen potentially battling for two spots: Provorov, Andrew MacDonald and Brandon Manning.
The Flyers aren't opposed to sending MacDonald to the AHL, as evident by the previous season. But MacDonald has come into camp a determined player and played significant time as well. Manning, who has had an up-and-down journey to the NHL, finally stuck around for a bit last season, but has seldom played in the preseason due to an injury. Manning’s spot could be on the line if Provorov has forced Ron Hextall’s hand.
For Konecny, the battle intensifies. The Flyers have 11 forward spots seemingly secure. Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Jake Voracek, Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn — though suspended for three games — are obvious. Dale Weise, Matt Read, Michael Raffl, Nick Cousins and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare are also fixtures of the bottom-six.
Boyd Gordon also looks like a fourth-line lock, given his skill set on the penalty kill. That leaves one spot left among the Top 12 and likely two or three more available spots altogether. There are also five players vying for those two or three spots: Konecny, Jordan Weal, Scott Laughton, Chris VandeVelde and Roman Lyubimov.
Konecny has obviously turned heads in camp, but finding a regular spot for him could be a challenge.
The Flyers and Hakstol have both a familiarity and infatuation with VandeVelde, who in limited play this preseason has done nothing much to separate himself as the veteran of the five.
Laughton suffered an injury at practice on Wednesday and in the two games prior to that has taken a step back from a solid start to the preseason. His spot is very much in jeopardy.
Even with an excellent preseason, Weal seems AHL bound, primarily because of Konecny. If the 19-year-old wasn’t in position to earn a spot instead of returning to juniors, Weal would certainly be a key part of the conversation.
Lyubimov is an interesting case. As a fourth-liner, he fits the bill perfectly and has quietly been one of the Flyers most effective players this preseason, trading time on the fourth line and penalty kill. Of the five, Lyubimov may be the other to get a roster spot if the Flyers choose to keep just two forwards of the five.
So there is plenty of excitement over the final weekend of the preseason, especially with two top prospects having a realistic chance to join the roster for the dawn of their careers. But there are a lot of decisions left to be made too, which makes for even more drama in the finalization of the Flyers roster.
